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Topic: Technical issues in Scarbo  (Read 2142 times)

Offline crystallis

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Technical issues in Scarbo
on: August 26, 2017, 06:47:22 AM
I've been playing/learning scarbo (the whole of gaspard, actually) for a while now, but i've never really mastered it technically.  Of the 5 times I've played it in public only one of them actually sounded decent.  I've browsed the forums and google quite a lot, but ill ask again anyways.  You never know unless you ask!

I lent out my copy with bar numbers so i'll just give a video and time stamps (sorry!)

Going into the actual issues, I'm primarily struggling with the repeated notes.  I can hit 80 per measure comfortably with control, sometimes 84, but anything faster and the notes sound uneven, or they come out metallic sounding and i start tensing up. 

Then theres the double note passages that are placed between those repeated note passages (37:23) .  its the grouping of 5 consecutive ones in the RH that i have issues with.  A fun piece of advise i got was to just omit a note reason being, who would notice ? lol.

some less pressing issues would be the left hand passage after the bell like E's  (36:16).  My arm gets tense 4/5's of the way through and i'm not sure how to build endurance or if I'm playing it wrong.
 

Then theres the big sweeping arpeggios (36:51).  I currently just add an extra beat because i can't make the sweep in the allowed time without making it sound scrambly.

I'm not sure if theres any other info that would be helpful (maybe what i've tried doing? IDK).

Thanks for any advice!   
I'm bad
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Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: Technical issues in Scarbo
Reply #1 on: August 30, 2017, 01:23:56 PM
Okay so before I say anything...

Honestly you can miss like 40% of the notes (okay not 40%) and you'll be alright.  Cause the important thing is that you capture the character.  And it's so hard that people won't get mad at you if you make a lot of mistakes.

Also could you give me the exact measure numbers you are having problems with?

And for the sweeping arpeggio you're talking about could you post a recording of yourself playing it?
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Offline diomedes

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Re: Technical issues in Scarbo
Reply #2 on: October 12, 2017, 06:13:11 PM
I'd consider myself fairly liberal, but I think most people become practical after a degree. I played scarbo some time ago, I see nothing wrong with taking a note out if it cleans up a passage in a critical sense. I don't remember having to take out any notes in that piece mind you, and those double notes weren't my greatest fear with that one. And for the arpeggions I wasn't particularly observant of how they fit into the overall meter. At least I don't remember being like that. Taking a metronome to this peice would be a strange approach indeed.
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